One of the major American cities
of the mid-19th century, Charleston was viewed by its citizens as a
hub of culture and erudition equal to that of the other great cities of the
time, including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. To illustrate the quality of the city’s
intellectual life and literary merits, “Charleston book-seller and Reform
Jewish leader Samuel Hart, Sr. proposed that Charlestonians join the trend” of
putting together an anthology of writings by city residents, much as several
other cities had done throughout the late 1830s.[1] Simms, the leading ...